Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 6 Feb 1996

Vol. 461 No. 1

Written Answers - National Lottery Funding.

Dermot Ahern

Ceist:

136 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Minister for Education the applications received by her Department for national lottery funding under the education heading for youth and sport in the year 1995; the organisation involved; the amount of assistance sought; the organisations that have been successful; the type of work proposed to be undertaken; the percentage amount of assistance approved for County Louth in 1995 in the overall national context from her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2298/96]

Records indicate that over 450 applications seeking grant aid under the sports capital programme were received in my Department in 1995. In addition, approximately 1,000 applications were on hand from previous years. The estimated total grant aid sought from all of these applications amounted to £62 million. I am not in a position to furnish the Deputy with a list of all applications received or to provide details of applicants who did not receive a grant allocation as this would place a serious strain on scarce staff resources.

A tabular statement of the organisations who were successful in obtaining a grant allocation under this programme in 1995 is contained in the Official Report of 23 January 1996 in reply to Parliamentary Question No. 357. Grants were paid in respect of a variety of projects under the sports capital and current programmes such as the construction of community-sports centres, club premises, pitch development, dressing rooms, scout dens and youth clubs and projects funded through Vocational Education Committees.

In 1995, my Department considered thirty applications from clubs-organisations in County Louth seeking grant aid under the sports capital programme to the value of £1.1 million. Projects were selected in ten counties for funding under the major facilities scheme. While County Louth was not one of these counties, nevertheless, 2.8 per cent of the funds available in 1995 under the recreation facilities scheme was allocated to projects in the county. This percentage allocation compares favourably with the percentage which would accrue to the county on a national population basis.

Statistics are not maintained in such a way that would enable me to give precise details of the percentage of lottery funding allocated to the county in 1995, I can say, however, that County Louth received 1.6 per cent of the total value of grant aid approved under both the sports capital programme and the vocational education committee youth and sport grant scheme.

In regard to the youth sector specifically, it is not possible to produce meaningful statistics on a county basis given the nature of the funding arrangements. A large proportion of overall funding is allocated to national bodies of the various voluntary youth organisations and local units are assisted by these national bodies in a variety of ways, including direct grant aid. It is not possible to quantify the level of grant expenditure specifically in any one county. However, two projects for disadvantaged young people in the Muirhevnamore and Coxes Demesne areas of Dundalk are funded through the National Youth Federation under the grant scheme for special projects to assist disadvantaged youth. Grants to these projects for 1995 amounted to £48,333 or 0.8 per cent of total grants under the scheme.
Barr
Roinn